MTA Pledges up to $7.5B to Aid Minority & Women-Owned Businesses

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has announced its new 2025-2029 Capital Plan, which includes an initiative to help historically underutilized businesses.

According to a press release, the MTA has pledged to spend $6.5 billion to $7.5 billion in giving contracts to New York State Certified Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses (SDVOB) and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBE).

Welcoming this move, Janno Lieber, the MTA chair and Chief Executive Officer stated that MTA honoured to work with varied businesses to encourage a fair and inclusive economy.

“We announced our next five-year Capital Plan this month and there’s a lot of work to be done. When we talk about rebuilding and improving the transit system, this includes billions of dollars of work to be done by our diverse contracting community. As the fourth largest employer in the region, the MTA is proud to partner for an equitable and inclusive economy," he said.

The MTA announced its intention to integrate 350 new businesses into its small business mentoring program over the next five years. The program provides mentoring and financial assistance to aid the growth of small businesses, with the authority intending to grant up to $400 million in contracts to these enterprises.

The MTA is also establishing a goal to certify an additional 300 DBE firms during the same timeframe. Furthermore, the agency has committed to establishing local hiring objectives for contracts valued at $5 billion, thereby generating thousands of union-wage jobs in communities directly affected by transit initiatives.

Lourdes Zapata, MTA Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer said, “As an industry leader with the best-in-state MWBE/SDVOB contracting program, it is important we continuously look for ways to increase awareness and participation to ensure we’re doing our part in creating opportunities that benefit our communities,"